Most of the modeling work was done in Israel before the team left for Florida. Many more bodies have been found, but officially the numbers are not released yet.” “We spoke to family members who gave us information on the layout of the apartments and the bedrooms where their loved ones slept. “We can tell you where each missing person is located based on the where the building stood initially and how it fell, where each apartment was, where each person slept,” Vach says. This, combined with information gathered from surviving family members and friends, produced highly accurate information on where among the layered piles of debris each room in each apartment, and each missing person, could be expected to be found. Using building information modeling tools and technologies and careful measurements taken on site, the Home Front Command was able to generate 3D digital models of the building before and after its collapse. “What is important to us is the current situation.” (IDF Home Front Command)Īsked about the cause of the collapse, Vach said it did not matter to search and rescue efforts.

Golan Vach, commander of the IDF Home Front Command’s National Search and Rescue Unit, at the Surfside disaster site. We’re finding a lot of people dead, extracting them, pulling them out, finding memories, furniture, toys … all smashed.”Ĭol. He said it was one of the worst disasters he had ever seen. Golan Vach, commander of the IDF Home Front Command’s National Search and Rescue Unit, spoke to The Media Line from the site of the building collapse at Surfside. IDF Home Front Command: High-tech modeling shows where to searchĬol. We’re finding a lot of people dead, extracting them, pulling them out, finding memories, furniture, toys … all smashed It was known that many Jewish residents, including 20 Israelis, were among the missing. With them were volunteers from ZAKA, the Israeli emergency response organization that specializes in gathering body parts for Jewish burial. The IDF’s National Search and Rescue Unit, along with members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit of United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency medical services organization, arrived in Surfside on Sunday morning. The Israeli government conveyed offers of help from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command search and rescue team, which has become a world-leading expert after assisting in many other disasters around the world. On Thursday, June 24, at roughly 1:25 am Eastern Daylight Time, the 12-story building collapsed suddenly, with some reports stating that long-term degradation and structural issues were to blame for the incident.īy Friday, an Israeli task force was onsite, sifting through the upper layers of rubble in 12-hour shifts.

(Additional bodies have been recovered but authorities have yet to add them until their families are notified.) Sixty-four people have so far been confirmed dead and 76 are officially still missing. The operation to search for survivors and bodies in the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, a suburb of Miami, has been ongoing for two weeks. Innovative technologies, methodologies speed up recovery efforts while staving off psychological damage to victims’ families, search teams

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